Cello Chocolate of Nevada City offers classes in unique process

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. The owners are Debi and Ned Russell, and make their chocolate bar in the Nevada City home kitchen.

Photo for The Union by John Hart
Cello Chocolates is one of 35 actual bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the country. Ned Russell is making chocolates bars with his wife Debi Ressell making the bars in the kitchen off Ridge Road, Nevada City, Tuesday morning.

How: Call The Union at 273-9561 or stop by The Union, 464 Sutton Way, Grass Valley

Cost: Tickets are $20 each

Related Media

When it comes to making chocolate, nothing gets more authentic than the bean-to-bar chocolate method.

Cello Chocolate of Nevada City upholds this process, comprising one of the few actual chocolate makers in the country.

“A lot of chocolate makers are chocolatiers, meaning they buy chocolate bars and make things like truffles out of them,” said co-owner Debi Russell, who operates Cello Chocolates with her husband Ned. “We actually make the chocolate from bean to bar.”

Cello Chocolate began with the couple offering chocolate classes, enlightening people of the chocolate-making process.

“A lot of people think you just take cocoa powder and cocoa butter to make chocolate,” Ned said. “It’s much more than that.”

The classes cost $200 and are common among groups of 10 people, making the price an affordable $20 per person, Debi said. The Russells come to customers’ homes to provide the classes, which last three hours and include a 30-minute slideshow about the history of chocolate.

“We teach them how to make chocolate and get hands-on experience,” Debi said. “People have so much fun with the classes.”

“We want people to be able to taste the distinct flavors from the beans from different countries and choose the ones they like,” Ned said.

Ned has been working with chocolate for many years after graduating from University of California, Davis, with a bachelor’s degree in food science.

He worked as manager of quality assurance and product development for a small chocolate-related company and then for Ghirardelli Chocolate in San Leandro for 12 years. Debi has a sales and marketing background, having managed executive briefing programs worldwide for Oracle, Cybase and Cisco.

“We’re a match made in heaven,” Debi said. “He does the manufacturing part and I do the sales and marketing part of it.”

Ned used to monitor 150,000 pounds of chocolate with Ghirardelli and now handles about 8 pounds through Cello Chocolate. The Russells decided to make and sell chocolate after the passage of California Bill AB 1616, the California Homemade Food Act, which permits the production and sale of low-risk food items to be sold from a residence.

“We were offering classes and thought that with the new law that was passed, making chocolate seemed appropriate,” Debi said.

The cocoa beans are oven-roasted, “minnowed,” or deshelled, ground up and melted down with cocoa butter and sugar, and poured into molds.

“We have 15 squares of chocolate per bar,” Debi said. “So you can have a little bit every day, if you wanted to.”

The company’s name came from Ned’s love for playing cello, and the catchy pairing of the word cello and chocolate.

“I liked the alliteration of the name, even though cello doesn’t have an ‘h,’” Ned said.

To align with the cello theme, a box of six chocolate bars are sold together in a set aptly named the “Bach Cello Sweet,” playing on the title of the six-part Bach Cello Suite musical composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. Though chocolate-making has been an exciting endeavor for the Russells, the art does pose some challenges, especially acquiring a small amount of beans from different countries.

“We had a shipment of Sur del Mar beans from Venezuela that was in a warehouse in New Jersey and was ruined,” Ned said. “We’ll have to wait for the next harvest.”

Cello Chocolate will be featured at local events, including farmer’s markets and Sunday’s Chocolate Infusion event at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, while local restaurant Matteo’s and Ol’ Repubic Brewery will be developing a food and beer pairing using Cello Chocolate. Ol’ Republic will be using shells from cocoa beans to develop a type of beer.

“The cocoa shell has a nice aromatic essence after it’s roasted and that’s what we’re using to infuse some of that cocoa smell in our stout,” said Jim Harte, owner of Ol’ Republic Brewery, who made the beer with his business partner Simon Loney.

Matteo’s will be pairing meals with the chocolate and will include the chocolate-infused beer by Ol’ Republic in a food pairing Feb. 11.

“We’ve done five different dinners, but never like this,” said Matt Margulies, owner of Matteo’s. “We are pairing three different chocolates with beers from Ol’ Republic and the menu is to come in the next couple weeks.”

To sign up for classes, order chocolate or get more information, visit cellochocolate.com or call (530) 478-0877.